‘I think I spot the trailhead this way,’ Liz calls to me from the edge of a tree-lined glade – anticipation in her voice. Our three-year-old husky, Ellie, and four-year-old malamute, Mot, pull at their leads – enthusiastically ‘encouraging’ her toward the entrance of the route. Leaving behind the tasting room and bottle shop that had lured me inside, I jog across the gravel parking lot toward this most photogenic threesome – juggling a tall can of McQuade’s Black Current Cider in one hand, a neat stainless tumbler filled with ‘non-alc’ rosé in the other, and my camera and lenses somewhere in between.
Just a few country blocks from the Kitchener city limits there’s an old farmhouse that sits on a small plot of land tucked into a bend in the road. Its sun-faded siding and concrete front porch are entirely unremarkable, and had I not been looking for the fire number, I would have surely passed it by.
WHETHER YOU’RE HOSTING FRIENDS & FAMILY THIS HOLIDAY SEASON OR LOOKING FOR THAT PERFECT GIFT FOR FOLKS WHO MIGHT BE HOSTING YOU, THE EXPANSIVE AND INTERNATIONALLY-ACCLAIMED ST JACOBS FARMERS’ MARKET IS YOUR ONE- STOP DESTINATION FOR HANDCRAFTED GOODNESS.
I’M A SUCKER FOR A BIKE SHOP. AND WHILE JUST ABOUT ANY SHOP WILL DO, SOME ARE COOLER THAN OTHERS. ENTER FLOW STATE BIKE CO – THE BRAINCHILD OF LOCAL GEARHEAD NATE LESSNICK. LOCATED AT THE MAIN INTERSECTION IN THE TINY HAMLET OF ARKELL, NEAR STARKEY HILL CONSERVATION AREA, THIS BOUTIQUE BUSINESS IS SURE TO APPEAL TO CYCLISTS AND NON-CYCLISTS ALIKE. IT’S GOT GREAT KIT AND A FULL-SERVICE MECH, OF COURSE.
‘Alysha and I have always daydreamed of whiling away our afternoons at some European café or other,’ Robyn tells me from our cozy table tucked into a far corner of the loveliest sun-drenched room. ‘After some time,’ she continues, ‘it occurred to us: why don’t we make the effort to turn these dreams into reality and open our own European-style café?’ Alysha, who’s seated with us, chimes in: ‘And so we did – and this is how it turned out.’
‘You guys produced this for Porsche?’, I ask Damian excitedly – running my hands along the top and sides of a large, completely rigid white box branded with the insignia of that most iconic German car manufacturer. Damian nods affirmatively, picks up the weighty package, and carefully opens its smooth lid – revealing a beautifully-mounted poster of a bright red Porsche Cayman (cradled in laser cut foam) inside.
AS SOMEONE WHO LOVES TO EXPLORE OUR REGION’S DOWNTOWNS (AND UPTOWNS), PREFERABLY WITH AN ARMLOAD OF PAPER BAGS AND A TURMERIC LATTE IN HAND, I’M ALWAYS ON THE HUNT FOR A BEAUTIFULLY-CURATED BRICKS AND MORTAR SHOP. YES, I KNOW THEY SELL SOAP ONLINE.
‘When I was younger,’ Georgia recalls, a mischievous smirk rolling out across her face, ‘I insisted on wearing anything I wanted. Colourful shirts. Vibrant pants. Mismatched socks. Polka-dotted rubber boots. Whatever fit my mood.’
Driven by my partner Nina’s background in and passion for pottery (and my own desire to elude long commutes) in 2009 Nina and I opened the first Play with Clay location in downtown Guelph. At its core, Play with Clay is an interactive pottery studio that offers ready-to-paint ceramics as well as the opportunity to work with fresh clay.
‘It makes little to no sense for a start-up looking to manufacture safety razors, of all things, to commission a specialist machine shop that’s cut its teeth producing satellite bits for the aerospace industry to do it for them,’ Brad remarks as he guides me past a handful of half-million-dollar mills and lathes operating at full steam.
Travel tends to sharpen taste. It introduces new ideas, uncovers unforeseen obsessions, and offers the occasional epiphany – nudging your sense of beauty and your grasp of craftsmanship in new directions. For Ryan LeClair, founder of Makoto Watch Company out of London, Ontario, it was travel – and specifically a trip to Japan – that transformed his infatuation with watch collecting into his initiation of a brand built on craft, restraint, and everyday practicality.
Almost nothing we carry defines us more clearly than the books in our bags: tactile objects filled with ideas and stories – testimonies to time well spent. They tag along with us, mark our days, and shape the rhythm of how we move through the world. In Uptown Waterloo, three long-standing independent bookstores – Carry-On Comics & Books (46 years young), Words Worth Books (42 years), and Old Goat Books (25 years) – offer distinct ways to build this bracket of everyday carry: a nostalgia-driven comic haven built for the thrill of discovery, a curated literary hub grounded in conversation, and a densely-packed used bookstore where the search is part of the reward. Together, these enduring fixtures map a reading life – charting not just what we read, but how we come to find it.
In my line of work – as writer, photographer, editor, regional explorer – EDC isn't a trend. It's infrastructure. Most days I'm in motion: tracing backroads toward a brewhouse, mapping my way to an artist's studio, or sliding into the corner of a coffee shop where I turn field notes into final copy and RAW files into photographs that will pop on paper. My office is wherever I set my bag down. My tools make it possible.
Stratford – and, by extension, Perth County – lends itself to takeaway. A coffee to carry, a sandwich in hand, something sweet tucked alongside – then out into the streets for window shopping, into the theatres for a performance, or down to the riverbank for a nosh.
